Weird Owl - Ever the Silver Cord Be Loosed Review by John Pegoraro (StonerRock.com) Tee Pee Records Release date: February 17, 2009
Weird Owl's three song Nuclear Psychology sampler was okay enough for a languid, heavy-on-the-Neil-Young type of band, but it didn't leave much of a lasting impression.
With Tee Pee Records debut, Ever the Silver Cord Be Loosed, the Brooklyn-based band has figured out how to make their alt-country psych rock work for them. Sure, there's plenty of “Heart of Gold” twang to tracks like “13 Arrows, 13 Stars” and “Phases of the Moon,” but this time around, Weird Owl doesn't sound so indebted to the Crazy Horse frontman's body of work (okay, maybe parts of “In the Secrecy of Oceans” are very reminiscent of “Ohio”).
The band's best on “Mind Mountain,” “Do What th' Owl Wilt,” and “Flying Low Through the Air After Thunder,” numbers where they up the psych quotient while still maintaining strong songwriting focus. Ultimately, Ever the Silver Cord Be Loosed doesn't quite match up to albums like The Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound's Ekranoplan, Black Mountain's In the Future, or The Black Angels' Passover, but it's certainly in the same ballpark. If you ask me, that's not bad company to keep.
"Weird Owl - Ever the Silver Cord Be Loosed" [Arzgarth]
Haven't been able to give this enough time and attention since picking it up because the new Giant Brain has basically been hogging my cd player, but I do like what I have heard so far. And each listen gets a little better.
I agree it's definitely not on par with Black Mountain's In The Future but I would say it's pretty equal with Assemble Head in Sunburst's Ekranoplan. (Haven't heard Black Angels).
